Togoland covered 34,934 square miles (90,479 square km) between the British Gold Coast colony to the west and French Dahomey to the east. Inhabited by a mixture of Ewe and other peoples, it became a political unit in 1884, when, in the European scramble for overseas territories, German chancellor Otto von Bismarck claimed it for Germany and other European powers formally recognized the claim. The Germans intended to make Togoland a model colony. Because the region lacked mineral resources (its phosphate reserves were not then known), Germany concentrated on agricultural development. Valuable oil palms grew naturally near the coast. The Germans introduced additional export crops, especially cacao and cotton, to be grown on plantations worked by African labour. Lomé, on the Gulf of Guinea, was developed as the principal town and port, and roads and railways were constructed to link the port to parts of the interior. The Germans also established a judicial and administrative system. The infrastructure, designed to serve German needs, brought some unity to the protectorate.

During World War IFrance and Britain occupied the protectorate, and in 1922 it was formally divided between them under a League of Nationsmandate. Two-thirds of the land and people, including Lomé, became French Togoland, bordering Dahomey. The remainder in the west, bordering the Gold Coast, became British Togoland. In 1946 the two Togolands became United Nations trust territories. The British part was administered with the Gold Coast and became part of independent Ghana in 1957, but French Togoland remained administratively distinct from Dahomey (now Benin) and became independent as the Republic of Togo in 1960. Lingering sentiment for the reunification of Togoland, especially among Ewe people in Ghana, has occasionally strained relations between Togo and Ghana since independence.

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Togoland was conquered by British forces from the Gold Coast (now Ghana) and by French forces from Dahomey (now Benin) in the first month of the war. In the Cameroons (German: Kamerun), invaded by Allied forces from the south, the east, and the northwest in August 1914 and attacked from the sea in the west, the Germans put up a more effective resistance, and the last German stronghold there,...

After World War I the former German colonies of Togoland and Kamerun were each divided between Britain and France as League of Nations mandates. British Togoland was administered from the Gold Coast, the British Cameroons from Nigeria. In 1946 they were redefined as United Nations trusteeships (see Trusteeship Council).

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(or Togo), former German protectorate in w. Africa on Gulf of Guinea; became German protectorate 1884; divided between France and United Kingdom 1922 as mandates and then, in 1946, as trusteeships; British Togoland (13,041 sq mi; 33,776 km), producer of cattle, cocoa, coffee, palm oil, palm nuts, hardwood, rubber, rice, corn, and beans; joined Ghana 1957; French Togoland became independent Republic of Togo 1960.